Tuesday – Pentateuch

Reading – Leviticus 24-25

Highlight Verses:

“The Lord said to Moses, “Command the people of Israel to bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to keep the lamps burning continually.”
‭‭Leviticus‬ ‭24‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I struggled with choosing a verse today, not because I couldn’t think of what to say about them, but because I had too much to say.

The Year of Jubilee and the Sabbath Years have much wisdom to apply to our lives today and I encourage you to look deeper into them.

But what stood out to me today was olive oil.

Not Popeye’s girlfriend but the oil from pressed olives.

Why would God be specific about what type of fuel to burn?

I decided to look into olive oil.

• When used as a fuel, it burns very cleanly, especially when refined and purified.
• When used in food, it was the healthiest type of oil available in that region.
• It can be made to burn for a long time.
• The purer it is, the brighter and cleaner it burns.
• – This serves as a metaphor to encourage pure living.
• – As purifying the oil takes greater effort, it symbolizes the effort required to purify one’s life.
• In practical terms, there was an abundance of olive trees in that region.

What does that mean for us?

• Purity takes great effort.
• That effort is worth it, giving off brighter, cleaner light to the world around us.
• The source for purity is abundant if we just take the time to find it.
• And in practical terms, God loves us enough to provide what is most healthy for us.

So, use that olive oil.

More importantly, seek purity.

It may be out of the scope of this verse but in the greater context of Scripture, you should understand that purity comes through trusting Jesus. It takes faith, but the work has already been done on the cross.

There is more to explore on this topic, but we will leave that for another day.

How do you seek purity in your life?
How has purity help you shine the light of the Gospel more brightly?